In His Former Life

Apparently, not only did Gary not have any special needs, he also happened to be a speech pathologist before, too. This also supposedly helped him to ‘perfect his voice,’ in order to fool people in the way he spoke. His whole act helped him freeload off of the goodness of others in the different places he would go.

Making Up A Story

After he had spent all of his money, he decided to make up a whole story that he was handicapped, both mentally and physically. Evidently, people were very willing to give money to someone begging on the streets when it seemed like they were much more helpless than others. And Gary was very good at it.